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Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Stop, Look and Listen

Almost three years from the date that the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010 and in the past 12 months as each layer of the law becomes exposed to the light of day, discussions, and analysis reveal serious issues with the law. These are issues that should have been analyzed and discussed in committee and in the Congress before it was passed into law by Democrats.

No one can predict accurately if the Affordable Care Act will suceed. Certainly not in the way mandates are put into effect. While the goals are admirable to insure all our citizens the law is unpredictable whether it can be supported by business, insurers, hospitals and providers.

After ten to fifteen years of reimbursement decline these entities are in no position to bear the brunt of further reimbursement decline. Yet HHS is demanding more administration, regulation, and expensive analytic studies with the hope that this will cut costs.

The issues are not political in nature and the substance of the argument is carried strongly by Republicans, and a few brave Democrats. The Democrats have a lot riding on this. It has been the theme of Democrats for the past four years. They want credit for a national health reform for which ObamaCare is not. The Republicans are not just being obstinate nor grandstanding….they are out to protect the country from unconstitutional law. Freedom is at stake here.

Tomorrow the House will vote whether to defund ObamaCare or shut down the government. This should never have come to this point.

The many features of this law were actually developed by ex-Senator Hillary Clinton (also recent Secretary of State) in 1992-1994 while Bill Clinton was President. At that time President Clinton assigned health reform to her as ‘the first lady’. Many of the items can be traced directly to Clinton’s administration.

In previous posts I have outlined the deficits of Obamacare, and it’s consequences on cost, the economy, and whether the mandates can be funded.

Michael R. Connelly (ret) a constitutional lawyer read the entire Affordable Care Bill and basis his opinion on many issues that were not plead before the Supreme Court’s decision on Individual Mandates. That was just one of the many talking points and did not address the other important conflicts with the constitution nor the misguided powers given to the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Never before has such arbitrary and absolute powers been delegated to an administrator. The law provides for little congressional oversight, nor built in checks and/or balances. Our congress was negligent and incompetent in drafting this law.

To begin with, much of what has been said about the law and its implications is in fact true, despite what the Democrats and the media are saying. The law does provide for rationing of health care, particularly where senior citizens and other classes of citizens are involved, free health care for illegal immigrants, free abortion services, and probably forced participation in abortions by members of the medical profession.

The Bill will also eventually force private insurance companies out of business and put everyone into a government run system. All decisions about personal health care will ultimately be made by federal bureaucrats and most of them will not be health care professionals. Hospital admissions, payments to physicians, and allocations of necessary medical devices will be strictly controlled.

However, as scary as all of that is, it just scratches the surface. In fact, I have concluded that this legislation really has no intention of providing affordable health care choices. Instead it is a convenient cover for the most massive transfer of power to the Executive Branch of government that has ever occurred, or even been contemplated. If this law or a similar one is adopted, major portions of the Constitution of the United States will effectively have been destroyed.

The first thing to go will be the masterfully crafted balance of power between the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches of the U.S. Government. The Congress will be transferring to the Obama Administration authority in a number of different areas over the lives of the American people and the businesses they own. The irony is that the Congress doesn’t have any authority to legislate in most of those areas to begin with. I defy anyone to read the text of the U.S. Constitution and find any authority granted to the members of Congress to regulate health care.

Disclaimer

The opinions in this blog or other forms of social media are solely that of Gary M. Levin M.D. Dr. Levin has no financial interests in any medical devices which are discussed or which appear in the blog. Commentary taken from other sources are either quoted or referenced with attribution. Dr Levin does not endorse, nor give financial support to any political organizations.